Should You Eat Differently With Age? The Additives Ban & School Food Shake-Up

0:00Plan B is a backup birth control option that's there for you when things don't go according to plan. It specifically works after unprotected sex and before pregnancy occurs by temporarily delaying ovulation. Plan B is available nationwide at all major retailers and through delivery apps like DoorDash. No ID, prescription or age requirement. It's the number one OBGYN recommended brand of emergency contraception and it won't impact your future fertility. That's Freedom the B. Use as directed. Hi and welcome to The Wellness Scoop, your weekly dose of health and wellness inspiration. As always, hosted by us, I'm Ella Mills.

0:40And I'm Rhiannon Lambert. And after a decade in this wellness industry, we know how overwhelming and very confusing it can be. So that's why we're here with our podcast to cut through the noise and make healthier living simple, fun and personal.

1:00this is the first time we've been in person together for so long and it feels so nice we needed it we needed it we also just had not sponsored an absolutely excellent lunch shout out to farmer jay you know there have been all of these um like salad bars and kind of we talked about them for the trend of like bougie salad bars all over london had never been there before but i texted rigs we didn't have much time and i was like oh we think it looks really good should try it absolutely chef's kiss as my children keep using do they except once it says chef's kiss and the other one goes chef patissier and i don't know what that means but she must have won at one point heard the word patisserie like a french but anyway i love it so it was chef patissier fantastic i i did have the most incredible tofu curry uh i was yeah pretty blown away because i thought it was just a cold grab and go and it had all these hot delicious options i know and also i remember when i first started cooking things like tofu and just being like oh this is so gross tofu is a really hard ingredient i had someone who's cooked it for almost 15 years that's true i don't think it's the easiest ingredient to cook with so whenever someone does tofu well i'm like you know people often say if you go to an italian restaurant and like the um spaghetti pomodoro or the tiramisu like the basics are excellent you know it's excellent i feel like if you're going to cook tofu well it's gonna be good on tofu i have so much to tell you but first let's go into what's coming up in today's show okay we seem to have the world's longest show and the world's shortest what's coming up bullet points i'm realizing now so guys there's so much more to talk about but we have some amazing updates from some very interesting groundbreaking research straight from paris for us which we're excited about but we're going to talk about headline talking through whether we should eat differently through the different decades of our life why tesco is banning and restricting over a hundred upf ingredients that is groundbreaking and incredibly exciting i can't wait to talk about it the biggest school food shakeup in a generation loads to talk about there re is literally fresh from parliament pre our tofu um little journey we just had um so she's got the most up-to-date information on that which is very exciting and then we have loads of community feedback from you guys on food noise the pressure to be thin glp1s and so we're going to delve into that which i'm really looking forward to but Rhi before you tell us about the groundbreaking research you've got from us fresh from Paris tell us about your baby moon how are you I mean she's really pregnant guys I'm out of breath when I walk down the stairs in parliament this morning the whole room left and you know the stairs are still quite steep it's an old building of course you know you've got a lot of steps when you get inside and yeah I was quite out of breath but I had a baby moon which was actually the first night my husband and I have been away together in several years by ourselves.

3:42You know, it was amazing. We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental. I mean, it was just a dream in Mayfair, the most incredible hotel I've probably ever been to. But I was so poorly in the evening. I had the most amazing lunch, but I'm realising now my stomach has very little room. And the issue is when you're faced with a feast that you really want to eat and you forget that you are so heavily pregnant is that you pay the consequence for that later on so um it consisted of room service in the evening of rice and tofu was my tofu element it was cooked it was cooked beautifully and i had the best time thank you but it has been such a busy week so before i get into paris ella how about you how about me really feel like ria's absolutely 100 miles an hour at the moment was heavily pregnant and I am definitely not on either camp but I'm good you know what so as you guys know we moved house a few weeks ago and I kind of really knew it's the right decision but I just found the moving the changes really unsettling and I just I don't know I think also it's very long school holidays I just didn't really feel myself I wasn't sleeping well I just felt very like on edge and I just feel like I'm coming out the other side and it feels so nice I just feel like much more myself again and the kids this is week two at their new school like they went in today so happily we had such nice play in the playground there after school and they were riding their bikes on the little lane by the house and it was just a sense of like okay we're really like finding our feet we're settling everyone is so much calmer and it just yeah we're good do you know how i could tell you're on the way up is that you posted a cheer pudding and I was like she's back because I had an amazing one at the hotel the same day I had this like incredible matcha mango oh that's your dream oh it was absolutely my dream but I saw and I thought she's got her mojo back she's back on the cheer puddings I know and our old dog I say old because I feel like it's an important part of the conversation but our very old dog is really on his last very very sadly I think he's probably even in his last week now and that's just obviously you've been heart-wrenching so sad and you just don't really I don't know it's so strange posting on social media being like yay this is so great when you're like I just don't feel that way yeah I don't know but also I don't really necessarily want to share like all the ins and outs of your vet visit no yeah exactly so I always find that's a very weird thing so I just don't really post at that point personally I think sometimes it's the best way to be but it's what makes that world so strange isn't it the online world um we'll all be thinking of austin this week i know thinking of him i can brighten your day a little bit with some updates so the news from paris okay so i had the most surreal opportunity to interview professor wilhelm de vos who um is the founder and he is the original researcher to discover the strain of bacteria within our guts called acumencia which we've discussed on this podcast before give us a reminder like the top line what is a commensia a commensia is almost like a garbage truck that comes out at night that cleans up your gut and helps your gut lining junctions stay tight i think that's the best way to describe it and not that he would describe it like that no but the colloquial descriptions are so important yeah and the reason we need these nice firm junction linings in our gut is because to keep us well keep our immune system functioning but now the new research we have is that it's linked to weight in a way we never previously thought so obviously we know that four percent of adults in the uk get enough fiber so we know we're not really feeding our gut bugs the right food anyway 86 percent of school-aged kids are not getting enough fiber and i'll get on to that later but we have to remember the food for our gut bugs to help them thrive so we even have akamensia within our guts there will be people that have very low counts or barely anything in terms of optimal gut health in the majority of the western world because of our diets being so poor but the reason this is so important and I sat down I got the opportunity to interview Wilhelm who is just such an for me I was a real inspiration it's a real inspiration you're sat in front of somebody that literally discovered a strain of bacteria it's funny because for some people would be like I sat in front of Harry Styles and you're like, I'm sat in front of the most innovative gut microbiome researcher.

8:20Yeah. And he was flying back to Helsinki that day where he's from and it was a very interesting conversation. But I also interviewed the chief RNA officer at Denon, which of course is one of the massive companies. Looking at gut health. Look at gut health. You may remember I went to the opening of their OneBiome lab where they were looking at AI twins last year. So he published a study back in May in Nature Medicine, which he's now allowed to talk about. Mr. Acomensia. Mr. Acomensia, Wilhelm, yes. Wilhelm, if you do listen to this, please know I have the utmost respect for you. But Mr. Acomensia is a great name.

8:53It kind of is. It's a very cool name. Acomensia muncephila, which found that if you supplement a specific dose, even pasteurized. So that's what's so remarkable about this. of this specific gut bug, you are more likely to keep weight off after a weight loss journey. And I think the reason this has been so unbelievably groundbreaking is because it potentially shows that alongside the use of GLP-1s, how important the dietary aspect is, first and foremost, but what solutions could potentially be on the horizon for people that fall into the trap of yo-yo diets, but also just to help the fact that, you know, one in three children are now obese in primary school age here and with adults we seem to see regain and rebound and you know drastic quantities so it was a long conversation basically discussing the fact that we now know that it helps improve insulin sensitivity so this one gut bug alone is having a direct role with our insulin with our appetite signaling and you know the strongest effects were shown in individuals that initially had low baseline level of acumencia and then they went on to supplement and the results were pretty incredible so lower weight regain compared to the placebo group it was just absolutely incredible ella and what can you do to um just like day-to-day increase the acumencia in your stomach well you can't pinpoint one specific gut bug obviously with diet but your overall diet matters and i know that we talk about it we talk about it in a a breadth of reasons actually on this podcast from uh 30 plant points being beneficial at lowering risk of cancer uh living another year having more sleep i'm trying to think of all the headlines we've covered for a variety of plants but for me really it's that you know these plants in a variety of color and fiber feed our gut bugs and we definitely definitely concretely know that watch this space because Acumencia represents like a new science-based solution for long-term weight management, which I think a lot of people will be really fascinated to hear.

11:07And it's interesting because I gave a lecture last night at 8 o 'clock to my weight loss journey on Read Plus, and I was talking about the fact that I love to see a plateau in weight loss. People will probably be surprised to hear that. Yes. So I had a little lecture slide of a linear line, which is what most people expect. They expect your weight loss journey just to keep going down, down, down because you're changing things in your life. But actually what I initially do in clinic is I get people to eat better in the first four weeks. I don't count any calories. I've always done this for weight loss for years because you want to improve your gut microbiome.

11:41You want to get the health markers in and then you want to see that plateau because that plateau means you've stabilized and you're able to tolerate this incredible new amount of fiber. and you're definitely supporting your gut and everything's working well, which means when you now make changes and you start to implement an energy deficit somewhere or a lifestyle change or a small tweak, your results will be more efficient to more long-lasting because you've actually fixed the gut bacteria. And this sort of research kind of backs that up. So it's a safe method. Let's watch this space. It's so interesting.

12:12As you said, in the world of GLP1s, it feels even more relevant.

12:20okay so if we move on to our health headlines that matter the first one we want to talk about today and re has the most up to date information as i said she's freshly back from parliament this morning which as we all know she's always very nonchalant about but it's very very cool which is that we have just had announced the biggest overhaul of school food in a generation daily vegetables more whole grains and pulses and less pizza fried food and sugary puddings are coming to school menus across England, which is really interesting. But really, give us the most up to date. Or do you want to do that at the end?

12:54Do we want to go through the info, then the live conversation? How do you want to do it? Do you know what I think is quite a good place to start with this is that the headlines that have emerged from it and what Ella and I initially discussed, because I got an email late Sunday evening that this is embargoed, everything's going to happen Monday morning. And I was like, right, here we go. Is that the press ran with the very similar headlines to when the pilot kind of initial ideas for these school food guidelines came in with we're taking away again, didn't they? It wasn't positive. I feel like most of British media always tends to go down the angle of banning food.

13:31Yeah, I totally agree. So just as exactly as a recap, so you might remember a few months ago, we talked about this because earlier in the year, the government announced some proposals for school meals and how they could overhaul them. But they were then going to go through this consultation process to understand what's possible and then to get a lot more specific. But both times, and so now we're in this place of much more specific on what's actually going to be implemented. And we'll go through what that actually looks like. But I totally agree. It was all this. It was kind of the sense of this is bad.

14:06You know, it was like, don't take our turkey Twizzlets away. Like, you know, Jamie Oliver did that. Yes, it's exactly like, oh, our poor children won't have so much dessert. It's awful. I know. And it was it's really disappointing to see second time around the media still leading with those types of headlines. First of all, that was and I think that's also confusing the public. I just want to reiterate that this is a once in our lifetime change to dietary food standards in the UK that we probably won't see again for a very, very long time. It's taken 25 to 30 years to get to this point right now.

14:40And just to explain, you know, we currently are in a position where children have never been more unhealthy in this country. And that is something that has to be at the forefront. And everyone clearly agreed. So the schools that they were trialing these results with, they did make certain tweaks. For instance, in secondary schools, they backed down from just saying one dessert a week and they're offering two because they know the transition's harder. They've also given secondary schools another year to implement things because they know it will take a bit longer. In primary schools, I think one of the biggest changes was that originally they were going full pelt, 100%, a whole grain.

15:17And they've actually backtracked and said, we don't mind white rice because bread now has to have at least four grams of fiber. And we know that across the course of what we offer in a school, you can still have your white rice because the topping that goes alongside it is great. So they really have taken a lot of time, a lot of care and a lot of consideration in how they implement this. And I think the only things they're taking out, and even with deep fat frying, it doesn't mean kids can't have fishy Fridays. You know, they're still going to have that because they're flash fried on site and then they're just baked when they get to the school.

15:53It just means schools won't have deep fat fries. There's no need to double fry. No, exactly that. Or chips might be oven baked instead, which exactly. And it's just the scale, as we said, like a third of children under 11 in the UK are now overweight or living with obesity. Tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital emission among five to nine year olds. so this is really important stuff so what's really changing number one is reset no more deep fat frying um on site chips for example need to be oven baked as we said really important one feels obvious but there must be fruit or vegetables every meal and i think what's really important here is that what they were explaining is that that doesn't include like hidden chopped carrots and lasagna it must be a proper portion exactly of broccoli next to the lasagna which is absolutely brilliant and even the grab and go meals are going to have to meet the similar fruit and vegetable requirements and at breakfast clubs is the goal because breakfast clubs is a bit more vague but just on the fruit and veg factor they have acknowledged and i spoke to um the representatives from the department of health as well yesterday morning before going into parliament today that there will be food waste and you know initially when you roll out anything new but i think what we have to remember is that the key age ranges that this is really going to be absolutely life changing for is those starting school this year next year that will notice the real benefits of this and we're going to start seeing a healthier generation and with our current government wanting to lift children out of poverty you have to put them on something that at least nourishes and provides so i think one of the other things many many fewer sugary puddings so sweetened desserts can be limited to once a week in primary schools and they will be made of so every dessert has to be baked with fruit yeah so it'll be a crumble for example exactly or a sponge that's got a chocolate brownie with beetroot i mean how wellnessy is that but that's what the schools are now going to see i know do you know what it's even interesting i actually said to my children yesterday we were driving home from school and i said to them do you know the government are now going to say that at school you can't have pudding more than once a week and they kind of looked at and they were like what because they've gotten quite used to having putting it at school all the time and I was like yeah because you're not meant to have sugar all the time and it's so interesting anyway more beans and lentils so at least once a week what's happening with this is that even once a week that includes in meat options it's not just for the vegetarian isolated options they are putting beans and lentils alongside traditional curries meat dishes things that are offered for pupils so they're going to start eating them hopefully without noticing or they will get used to it yeah how groundbreaking is that as you said if you look at primary school aged children who are still probably a little bit more malleable yeah this is amazing um yeah only having putting once a week fruit four times a week is brilliant and what we've been waxing lyrical about on the wellness scoop hella things like sausage chicken nuggets and ham restricted to once a week which is absolutely amazing that's a big win i could of jump for joy when i read that i completely agree and then breakfast is going to have rules obviously breakfast clubs are huge yeah pastries and fried eggs off the menu cereals are going to have a sugar cap so things like cocoa pops no longer so chocolate spread not allowed what's so interesting is with the trial the consultation period originally they wanted sugars and cereals to be no more than five grams but they've had to increase it to 5.5 grams because it was quite difficult to actually reach that alongside a piece of fruit in the morning and all the other different calculations that they're doing but it does mean no rice krispies it means no cornflakes i said to you read this earlier like i remember my mom saying and i'm sure she won't mind me saying you know she used to get rice krispies for me and my brother and that was what we were allowed for breakfast like monday to friday and she'd save the sugary cereal that was the weekend tree and obviously having absolutely no idea that rice krispies really were quite sweet yeah just low low in fiber and no nutrient thinking that they were like really good and it's so interesting anyway i'm i'm such a fan i think this is absolutely amazing and there's also going to be an emphasis on accountability like we know this isn't easy but schools are going to have to publish their food policies and menus online and monitoring arrangements being developed with the food standards agency so theoretically it should be easier for parents and government to see whether standards are being followed and so loads of you listening are often like how can i influence my school well this is going to make it so much easier you can now hold them accountable so schools should be publishing the menus i do actually have a voice note from joe um rolling who um created with the food foundation this incredible video ella i don't know if you saw it the day everything came out but they had a load of celebrities and influencers attend what they thought was going to be like um is angela harnett angela harnett an amazing chef a famous chef and that they were going to have this amazing dinner prepared by her it was incredible but actually they were essentially served like really beige really bland school food to highlight how much it needed to change yeah and no one wanted to eat it it was quite an amusing watch it was a very good publicity stunt and they've also created some guidelines for schools to help them you know make these changes they are big changes for schools to make they're mega and for parents to get used to and for children also to get used to they really are like it's a having pudding taken away that much having it replaced by fruit suddenly having a chickpea on the menu having your ham taken away like ultimately as we look at you know i know there's individual needs but as we look at the population as a whole it inherently feels absolutely brilliant but it's not i don't think it's straightforward change isn't easy and it will take time to implement and they have allowed for that time but ultimately let's see what joe has to say before we continue hi my name's joe rallying i'm head of campaigns at the food foundation we're delighted to see the new school food standards announced this week by government and there's a lot of great stuff in there whilst we know that there are some schools already who are delivering really nutritious and great food others don't and it's important that our kids right across the country are all given the opportunity to to eat nutritious and great food in school the new standards are increasing fiber for the first time there is a requirement to serve beans and pulses which are real little superfood and that's going to be great for our kids there'll be less sugar a little bit less fried food a little less processed meat and obviously lots of fruits and fruit and vegetables this is so important because this is exactly what our kids need.

22:30Children need to be able to not be hungry so that they can concentrate in school and learn and thrive and grow to their full potential. So overall this is great news. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity really for us to really see and improve the health of our children right across the country. The other good news is that there's help available for schools. The School Food Project have set up a digital hub, which is full of online resources and teaching videos to help train those catering staff in schools to deliver these new school food standards. So if you'd like to see your school, sign up and go to schoolfoodproject.org.uk.

23:13You just register. Help is at hand for every school. Thank you so much, Jo. I think it's, do you know, there's a lot of work still to be done. And as we said, regulating this is obviously one of the big things. And a lot of pushback I've had Ella talking about in Parliament this morning, it comes down to financials. Fruit juice was even questioned in an article I've just been asked to contribute to in the Daily Mail. Why have they taken fruit juice off the menu? Why is it just water or milk or a plant-based alternative? And it's because even 150 ml of fruit juice at lunch takes your overall quota of natural sugars you can get in a meal above what it needs to be.

23:51and it's just unnecessary. And I really feel like we're starting to get with the times a little bit more. The one area I want to see improved and that's why I was at Parliament this morning is breakfast clubs. So currently they're almost going to publish a list of what's allowed and what's not allowed. And I know that some companies are doing amazing things. Like I know Warburton's improved the fibre in their loaves and people that provide foods for breakfast, but there's no monitoring. I want to see baked beans on a breakfast menu. I'd love to see eggs because you can't have nuts in schools. There's no nut butter option.

24:23So what are they going to spread on the toast? Yes, exactly. Because you can't have pure jam now. You can't have chocolate spread. No. So, you know, there's going to be all these questions parents have and we completely understand that. But look, we have to remember that this means that 3 million children will have access to free school meals that are actually fairly decent. And also, you know, my understanding is it's, you know, children often need to be shown something 10 times to become interested in it or like it. And as we know, this is an amazing opportunity to have women just said like chickpeas to get to know a chickpea.

24:57Yeah, and I actually sat down with Pepe Delazio who, he represents head teachers around the country and he knows the plight of how hard this is going to be. Was he there this morning? He wasn't there this morning. He was there at an event I sat down for last week on this before these guidelines came out. There've been a lot of... Chat. Gosh, there's been a lot of chat around this one. Are Ofsted going to regulate? Is it up to the governors? It is a massive, massive thing. But he genuinely argues that schools do need more investment in catering facilities. And I do understand that. And also the training.

25:32I mean, some of the school chefs probably have never made a lentil dal before. well you know some of these dishes are completely and utterly out of the current let's just deep fry a burger and put it on a plate type of process a lot of schools will have no as you said change isn't easy but well we just want to say a really big thank you to the charities um like bite back that of course work so hard the jamie oliver group always shine a light on it school food matters i work with the food foundation and veg power and it's campaigning for something that i know is not easy and it's worth also saying that this is england only so the rest of the uk does things differently don't they like scotland yeah exactly that okay our second headline is actually very similar this is quite a short one but it's very interesting move tesco bans more than a hundred additives in processed food crackdown what a headline what a headline i actually think there was one in the sun that was called bannative it was quite good it's just full of bans everywhere I feel like perhaps that's why the media took the school food a bit negatively as well.

26:38And I, you know, look, we always talk about it, that when we come to like changing our diet, we should focus on the positives. And, you know, I still believe so strongly in that. But equally, you need a little bit of carrot and stick, don't you, ultimately. But this is really interesting. I mean, I have much less so now, but used to sit in a lot of retailer meetings. And I have to say, I remember sitting in a Tesco meeting. This was a long time ago now. It's like three or four years it was quite a very senior person in there and i remember them saying this like passion that they had as a company and how they really really wanted to kind of take the mantle forward and how much responsibility they felt and i remember thinking it was the first time i've really heard someone you know obviously individuals when they're group but in terms of the kind of total organization and it felt so exciting anyway it's amazing to see this so tesco has announced it's restricting or banning 114 different additives from its own brand foods as supermarkets respond to growing consumer concern about ultra processed food obviously tesco is our biggest supermarket in this country and they had last year 65 65 additives that were either banned or subject to restrictions obviously so that's almost a doubling of that some of them for example artificial colors artificial sweetener aspartum i never know how you say that we have this every time aspartum yeah aspartame aspartame yeah and msg yeah which is so interesting and then it's also creating um or kind of has updated its suppliers sort of terms or guidelines that to show that you can only use additives where it really is necessary for food safety, shelf life or quality and in the most minimum amount needed, which I think is also really, really interesting to see.

28:15It's just fascinating. I felt like I said at the beginning, we are on the cusp of such monumental change. I feel like we've had enough. We've, you know, we've gone so far down a rabbit hole where the health is just declining, declining, declining that nobody now wants to be on the wrong side of history. Let's start with that. And this isn't just a privileged conversation anymore, because with companies like Tesco coming out and, you know, 80 percent of their shoppers telling the retailer that they want to reduce their, you know, ultra processed food intake, they are actually listening. It's not just brands like M &S because I feel at the beginning, if we'd had this conversation a year ago, I'd have said, I love what M &S are doing, but I do feel that it is.

28:59It's more exclusive, isn't it? It is for a certain shopper, a demographic that Borough's Tesco, I feel, hits a broad range of public. They're the biggest retailers. So obviously what they do is going to have the most disproportionate effect versus anyone else. Although I said this to you earlier, really, when we were together, I was so impressed by M &S. I have to say sorry I wasn't always like a big M &S fan I don't know I didn't necessarily get the obsession with it but there's one very near me now and I went in yesterday with the kids and I was just looking at a lot of their ingredient decks and like that you know the kids wanted a kind of Calippo type product and they had the same packaging kind of thing but I think it was like three ingredients literally like orange sugar water and some vegetable pulp and I was so impressed it's absolutely unbelievable anyway I totally agree this to me is really exciting it genuinely feels like there is this moment where we're reaching a tipping point in terms of the change in health and I was just so interested to see Tesco do that on their own accord yes and actually what's so interesting do you remember when I went to that Tesco roundtable event and they were discussing so obviously they've done lots of initiatives over the year they've tried to give schools through to veg you know they've tried they're trying to do the right thing but they I really felt like a general consensus in the room that they want to lead the way.

30:14And they're opening the door and saying, can other retailers come and work with us? If we all did this. I know, but I think it kind of makes them, doesn't it? Like if you were sitting in one of the other retailers offices today, it'd probably be like, OK, we have to follow suit, don't we? So I think it's a it's mega. Anyway, I think more than anything, I think it's a really big green shoot. I don't think it's even a shoot. I think it's like a little. Firework. Yeah. a nice big lily plant yeah something's happening it's definitely happening and just to remind you the reason that we're having these discussions is even though it is still debated that i think there's little questioning now that diets that are high in upfs are repeatedly associated with obviously high risks of obesity type 2 diabetes cardiovascular disease and poor health outcomes in general i mean you could dispute it as a scientist all you like but we know even what we spoke about at the beginning, we've got microbiome research that we just need to eat better.

31:13We need to help people do it. So well done, Tesco.

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32:39It just takes you on a path. Well, I think that's why it works so well, because, you know, most of us just don't need more big decisions every day to make, Ella. No, exactly that. We've got decision fatigue, haven't we? So this is so nice because you just follow this path of meditation, which is led by Henry, the founder, who's just the most amazing teacher. And he makes it seem somehow just incredibly simple, but exceptionally profound at the same time, which is a very rare skill. And I've been using it too. Yes, I've now finally begun my meditation journey and I've been doing some of the shorter practices on busy days because I completely understand why you talk about it so much, Ella.

33:17It really is a nice intro in for me. Yeah, it is. And I'm so glad. Anyway, it's helped me feel so much calmer, less reactive, more present. It all sounds like huge claims, but I just say, please, please, please try it. If you're struggling with stress or overwhelm you just got to give it a go and the lovely thing is that everyone listening can definitely try it themselves exactly so you can get a 30-day free trial so just try it every day per month it'll change your life all you do is head to thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop yeah that's thewayapp.com forward slash wellness scoop okay our third and chunkiest headline of the day um is an article that re was contributing to in the times which i thought was perfect thought you guys would be so interesting crunchy to chunky headlines you remember our crunchy mum stuff there we love that um how to eat for your age the key changes to maximize your health obviously longevity huge topic in the world of health and wellness but interesting to look at whether our needs shift decade by decade yes And of course, there's an element of common sense here that, of course, as we age, we should adapt accordingly.

34:29But no one really has time to catch up with those adaptations or even think about it. You know, life definitely moves at a million miles an hour. But our nutritional requirements, they definitely change. And we would say at university, it's nutrition through the lifespan. That's what the module would be called. And you look at different decades of your life and how a different micronutrient intake varies. But we're looking at this on a broader time frame now. So it's not too late. I don't think people talk about it that much. Like, I don't think that this idea that you'd need to eat specific things once you hit your 50s, for example.

35:03I don't think that's general knowledge at all. I agree it's not general knowledge. Yeah. And it's not ever been sexy enough because longevity conversations weren't around for anyone to even take an interest in. So let's delve into it. It means it's not too late, everybody. You can make these changes. First of all, I'm a bit fed up of hearing that your peak was in your 20s. Obviously, now we're in our 30s. I'm like, I don't want to hear that. I definitely wasn't at my peak in my 20s, for goodness sake. No, we're going to peak in our 60s. Yeah, I mean, every decade's a chance to have a peak moment, everybody.

35:37Our 30s, let's start there. This is a difficult decade because I feel like you're either juggling your career, work, family life, and lots of different challenges that come with it. However, you're still quite metabolically resilient and you still have a fair amount of lean muscle, hopefully. And you definitely want to be encouraging. So the things that we'd really focus on here. And actually, I wanted to bring it up on the Wunner Scoop, but I didn't. There have been a few headlines about vitamin D coming into question. Yes, we need to talk about this. We do, which we will bring up maybe another time.

36:14Maybe next week we'll do a bit of a deep dive into that. Let's do that. I'm going to make a note right now while you tell us about our 30s. Thank you very much. OK, so points to remember in your 30s. It's not, sorry, every time I move everybody when I'm recording, the chair I sit on creaks. And I'm already significantly heavier with a baby. So I feel like I'm just like creaking around at the table here. But think plant diversity and not just five a day was my first point. Like I've mentioned already, you want diversity to support your bacteria. This is a positive nutrition approach. People in their 30s right now were brainwashed with calorie counting and restriction.

36:47I want you to undo all of that and have a real think about diversity and adding more. Vitamin D, we have to remember that it's not just lack of exposure with the weather in the UK. As we get older, it's also our ability naturally to synthesize it from our skin. So because our skin is aging as well, we need to remember that that's why we do need that supplement in the winter months. And I will discuss that next time because I know that's been in the headlines. Iron. I really want to go there for women. And we've mentioned it before, but iron stores throughout our lives are so important. Already we have a massive issue of the fact that we were marked the same as men in blood test results.

37:32And that the criteria that was up until I'd say a year or two ago looked at as an iron deficiency, the markers moved. And we just weren't taken into consideration. For women, it's just so crucial. And by the age of 50, largely because menstruation depletes stores and let alone going into early menopause for some women, you need to be getting more on your diet. Sardines, I know they're trendy, but they're great. Think edamame beans, dried apricots, tahini, cashews. Again, a varied, rich diet. But I'd say more of us need a supplement iron than we probably realize. And it's quite a difficult supplementation to get right.

38:10Because it can give you quite bad tummy problems, right? Yeah, depending on the form and how bioavailable it actually is. Interestingly, anecdotally, I was largely deficient and now my stores are back up to just the lower end of normal because I've been taking supplementation throughout the pregnancy. So it is effective and it does work if you can find the one that works for you. then let's talk about fertility we're having babies later and later but if you are thinking about fertility you do need to start earlier than you might think with things like the little micronutrients like zinc that I don't think many people think about a lot of the time and b vitamins have been highlighted for men and we're learning more and more here about you know the fact that even though we're born with all our eggs as women we can impact the quality of those eggs stored within our body and men have a sperm turnover every 90 days so their dietary changes I mean you can measurably track them so that's 30s amazing and then as we get into our 40s this is when actually we want to start as you said thinking that it's never too late to make changes like this is exactly where you really can lay really positive foundations in terms of like really increasing your health span above your lifespan as such just how many years you feel amazing and one of the most interesting studies here found that eating more nuts whole grains and pulses in your midlife was associated with a greater chance of reaching 70 free from major chronic disease and with good cognitive physical and mental health which is obviously what we all want i mean we've had a lot more research come out over the past two to three years now the interest in longevity is there that 40s is actually a time that does predict not to put too much pressure on it, but really predicts your later life outcomes more than we'd previously thought.

39:56And obviously, there's a huge variation there, be it if you're a man or a woman as well, of course, with perimenopause symptoms and things that women have to tackle there. But for men, heart health suddenly changes. You know, the old saying that people would say about men that were naturally, you know, metabolically quite lean, oh, just you wait, just you wait till you hit your 40s and it'll all go around your middle you know people used to say it's like a grandma's saying i can't remember the phrase exactly what you mean though but you know it is true that heart health becomes more important and cardiovascular risk it really shows up in your 40s and that means thinking about those unsaturated fats the good type of fats we talk about a lot on here and also alcohol we become more sensitive to our alcohol toleration as we age anyway but it becomes more which is why people say oh i can't hold my drink you know you have two drinks and you feel hung over whereas in your 20s you like have eight margaritas a couple of pizzas and feel a-okay all the cold pizza the next morning as well leftover in the fridge but yeah because an nhs survey found that 34 percent of men aged 45 to 64 were drinking still above the 14 units a week and they're drinking, they just haven't changed their habits to adapt to how sensitive their body is.

41:16And I do feel that risk there for men is really important to mention because women, we talk about our health, there is still that difference where we're aware of hormonal changes now. We're really talking about menopause. I wanted to bring up the whole menopause conversation as well. I haven't really heard much about menopause. What happened in menopause? Is that a midlife crisis from which being really rude no it was absolute uproar there was a feature on this morning i should probably save this for an extra scoop i'll give a brief skim okay where brendan cole he used to be a strictly come dancing dancer okay has launched a podcast called the manopause because he believes men also have a manopause and women are in uproar like you can't just give us the menopause can you have to just have a manopause the whole like having a midlife crisis as opposed to having a medical event?